My soul loves Jesus

That is a song that I love and I just thank God for his many blessings. Please continue to pray my strength in the Lord as this journey has not been the easiest. I still haven't had my surgery as of yet but feel a need to try harder to lose the last of my weight. I don't expect all of you to understand what I am going through my problem is I love food I like to eat. I like the way it makes me feel after I have filled up and then I can sleep like a baby. I am fighting the candy jar right now and I thank God that he is going to get the glory out of it. I don't need any candy all I need is Jesus. Please pray for me I am so close now. God bless Lorraine

Hi Lorraine, ~This is long~ Sweetie, what I say to you I say out of love. It looks like you've been trying to lose 10% of your body weight since 2003. Is that right? 10% of your body weight would have been 44 pounds. Trust me most of us that come to O.H. come here because we are obese, morbidly obese, or super morbidly obese. We didn't get this way because we don't like food. We do understand a lot of what you have gone through, because we have been there. We struggle with the temptation of food, just like you do. Sometimes that temptation get's the better of us and we eat the wrong kind's of food, or we eat to much food, and often to much of the wrong kind's of food's. I understand that everyone's metabolism is different, and we all lose weight at different rates. I was told by my insurance company that I would have to lose about 20 pounds. I started trying hard to lose the 20 pounds. When I saw my surgeon he said I had to lose 30 pounds, he didn't give me any credit for the 24 pounds I had already lost~because he didn't weigh me my p.c.p. did. That meant I had to lose a total of 54 pounds before I could have my surgery! I prayed about it, I struggled with it at times. I cried about it, I asked my O.H. family for help. I have lost 60 pounds since the end of June. This is what I had to do to lose it. Maybe it will help you. First a little bit of background. I live with my daughter(25yo) in her home, and my 17yo son and my 4yo grandson (all are normal weight). I am addicted to sweets! I can bake very well from scratch, and because there are 2 school age people in the home there are lots of snack foods here as well...... I knew if I was going to make this work and lose the required amount of weight, I would need to get serious about dieting. FOOD IS NOT MY FRIEND~AND FOOD IS NOT YOUR FRIEND EITHER! I told my family I needed their support to lose this weight. I can't do it on my own. Now they've heard this before, but were determined to help me anyway. First thing we did was to clear out all of the cupboards. We threw away all of the baking ingredents ~sugar, flour, baking powder, Etc. then threw out all the chips, snack crackers, ice cream etc. We cleaned house so to speak. We got rid of all the fattening food in the entire house. This is not wastefull and it is not a sin to get rid of the things that are causing us to sin~and gluttony is a sin. We replaced this junk with healthy foods. Every thing we buy now is fat free. FF milk, FF miracle whip, FF salad dressings FF cottage cheese, FF cheeses of all kinds, FF sour cream etc.. I read all of the labels before I buy it. Check for calories, fat content, sugar, protein. If it has more than 2or 3 grams of sugar put it back on the shelf, not in your cart. Some say you can have up to 5 grams of sugar~I prefere not to play with it though. I stopped eating pastas,and rice, something I used to eat a lot of (they turn to sugar in your system). This was a real biggie for me I stopped drinking my calories. It's amazing how quickly the calories add up when you drink them. I went from using margarine to using butter to using butter buds~now I don't use any added fat source's. I eat lean meat when I eat meat. I usually eat garden burger products now, It's meatless burgers, chicken, ribs etc. they taste pretty good but have much less calories and fats, than meat. It's hard at first, but it's amazing how fast a body will adjust to life without sweets, and fat's. I found a protein drink that I could tolerate. That's important~because we have to have them after surgery. I usually wait an hour or two before I eat breakfast, after I wake up in the morning. This is what a typical day looks like for me as far as food goes. I start off by drinking water about 20 oz's in two hours ****ep 20 oz. bottles that I refill with tap water). Then I make my protein shake. I use Whey Vantage banana blowout(from GNC) I measure out 8 oz water about 4 to 6 ice cubes, 1 scoop of protein powder, put it all in a blender an pulse it untill the ice is chopped all up, pour it into a glass and enjoy. I sip as if I already had my surgery. Then I continue to drink my water 20 more oz's over the next 2 hours. For lunch I usually have tuna in water(drained) mixed with 2~Table spoons measured out~ of FF miracle whip. I will put that on a hamburger bun(I only use aunt millies fiber for life whole grain hamburger buns For bread) or sometimes I'll have a salad W/ FF dressing Measured out, Each salad ingredent is measured or weighed as well. Then I continue with more water, for dinner I will have a lean meat ~ or a garden burger product, veggies, sometimes a half of a small potato salt only. Then I continue drinking water untill I go to bed. I keep a bottle of water beside me at night and drink a couple of times during the night. You can add a little bit more foods(be carefull with your choices) as long as everything that goes into your mouth has been weighed or measured. I bought my food scale for $2.99 at walmart. I try to stay around 700 to 800 calories my surgeon said I'm ok as long as I keep it under 1000 calories. If you choose your foods carefully you can eat a whole lot for 1000 calories. If I can do this Lorraine you can to. Remember to start with prayer, and if it's going to work out for you sweetie~ you have to get serious about it. Hope this helps you Lorraine. God bless you, Annette pre-op 11-17-05 378/319/148?

Thank you for your email I think I am going to try it and Pray before each meal the only thing I think I will do I cracker instead of bread and I will add some fruit for snacks one in the morning and one in the evening. I will try it for a week if you don't mind I would love for you to be my email partner and I will send you and email daily of my progress. I will start on monday since I have a wedding to go to today. I will watch what I eat though. God bless you and thank you for your right on time email. Lorraine.

Hi Lorraine, I would be happy to be your E-mail partner. Send me your E-mail address~ mine is [email protected] God bless you, Annette